


Perfect Light

by dearxalchemist



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 02:28:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2411627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearxalchemist/pseuds/dearxalchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Easy…” He warns her and moves to reach for a scratchy motel towel. It’s rough and old but it’s clean. That’s all that matters as he presses the white towel over her bloody wound. The tequila has washed over her side and on to his pant legs, soaking into the thin motel mattress. It smells like the Twister for a moment in the small room. The thick scent of alcohol and blood, but there’s more than just that with Kate pressed against his chest. She smells like cheap motel soap and something else. Something clean; cleaner than anything this side of the border.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perfect Light

Her back is pressed in to his chest but not of it’s own free will. He’s got his tattooed arm locked around her bare middle and her head is pressed into the crease of his arm and shoulder. Her teeth are grinding together and there’s a heaving sob ready to leave her lips the moment he uncaps the tequila bottle and turns it over, splashing the alcohol over her bloody side. The pain is too much even for the tough preacher’s daughter. She’s screaming into his shoulder and it quickly dissolves into a half-hearted sob as she grips on to his arm with both hands. Kate’s nails dig into Seth’s flames and he can’t say anything. For once in his life he has no sharp comebacks, no great words of wisdom or anything of the sort. He just leans forward and presses his chin over the crown of her head before dumping the bottle once more over her side. 

There’s another rough round of screams and she even beats on his arm with her little fists. 

“Easy…” He warns her and moves to reach for a scratchy motel towel. It’s rough and old but it’s clean. That’s all that matters as he presses the white towel over her bloody wound. The tequila has washed over her side and on to his pant legs, soaking into the thin motel mattress. It smells like the Twister for a moment in the small room. The thick scent of alcohol and blood, but there’s more than just that with Kate pressed against his chest. She smells like cheap motel soap and something else. Something clean; cleaner than anything this side of the border. 

Seth’s hand presses over the towel covered wound and he applies pressure. It’s nothing extreme, but enough to blot away the liquid mess across her flesh. Kate’s breathing has gone ragged as she pulls her head away from his shoulder and turns it just enough to look over at his hand. His fingers are splayed out over the towel, clutching it to her like a lifeline. “I’m going to pull it away, you don’t have to look.”

“I don’t run away.” She says it like he doesn’t know that. Like he didn’t watch a Culebra twice her size go to its knees in agony as she slammed a blade through its body. Though she may have conquered that one, it was like fighting the darkness. Everywhere they turned there were more snakes. So many of them that they seemed to multiply across the desert the further they drove on. It didn’t matter what direction they went. There were always more but, never the ones they were searching for. There were plenty of rumors of Santanico but none of his brother. 

Carefully Seth pulls the towel away from her side and it sticks to her flesh for a moment. She doesn’t cry out this time, instead she shifts back. Her back hits his chest a little harder and she sucks in a sharp breath. There’s jagged lines over her side, stretching to her soft belly where they thin out and vanish. It looks like something out of a monster movie took a bite out of her. It already looks better than it had in that bar from earlier. “Do you think I’ll need stitches?” Kate asks but it’s quiet and they both know the answer. She’ll need stitches or staples, anything to sew the skin back together. Left without them and she’d likely get an infection or worse, bleed out in this dump of a motel. 

“I can get some thread but I’m no damn nurse.” He sounds irritated but not at her. More at the snake that decided it didn’t want to die with a knife in the throat, it wanted to take Kate and her light away from him. Away from Seth and his cocky attitude when he stood on top of the bar with a bottle of bourbon and a stake in his palm. 

He had stepped on a stool, up on to the bar and made the announcement. He and the little lady were looking for a certain someone. A woman of Pandemonium and her new toy. Richie to be exact. After weeks of searching for just packs of culebras, they decided it was finally time to find the younger Gecko. It was time for Seth to reign in Richie, bring him home. Take care of him again. Like he always had and always would. Culebra or not, Richie was his blood and he needed him. Kate had agreed to stick with him this far and she was growing on him. More than just growing on him, she was his partner now. He taught her how to hold a gun, how to fire it properly and not get hit with recoil. She curled up next to him in motels no matter how many beds they had in the room. She could start the night on one mattress and he would wake with the morning sun to a warm body pressed to his side. Seth never booted her out. Instead he moved a protective arm around her form and pulled her in closer, letting her settle against his chest. The sound of her soft heart beating would lull him back to sleep and she’d be up a little later and they never spoke of it. It was an unspoken action and agreement that came with the pair. 

So when he had stepped up on that bar, he had expected Kate to follow. However, her shorter legs left her grounded and a culebra decided to use her to his advantage when Seth started swinging and he ripped her side open. It was a scream that was still echoing in his head. Despite her injury they managed to win this battle and there was word of Santanico in the next town over. Only problem was Kate as she limped to the door without his help and she slipped to the floor by the time Seth managed to get off the bar and pull her up in to his chest. He gripped on to her like she was the last possession he would ever get to hold. He has lost Richie, losing Kate would be devastating. 

Seth presses a second towel over her side and gently pushes her up to get out from behind her. Kate instantly falls back against the mattress as he lets go of her and leans over her form. His free hand stretching up and smoothing over her pale forehead as her eyes searched the ceiling for a moment before coming back to focus on him. Her lips quirked up in this sad little smirk, “Go get me some thread. If you can’t be a nurse, you can be a doctor.” 

He knew she was humoring him but he can’t help but smile back at her for a moment. His palm smooths over her forehead and across the mess of hair that is splayed everywhere behind her. For a moment she resembles a gunshot victim. Instead of rivers of blood there are tendrils of hair that spilled over the cheap pillowcase. “I’ll be back.” He insists it with a half-whisper before a firmer repetition of words as he moves and grabs her hand, covering it over the towel, showing her to keep pressure on the spot. His hand lingers on hers for a moment and then he pulls away, grabbing the half-empty tequila bottle and leaving room. 

The desert at night is surprisingly cool. Not chilly but not stifling like it is in the daylight. Seth pulls the bottle up to his mouth and takes a few sips before setting it on the wood railing that lines the whole cheap place. He doesn’t know how to be a doctor or how to sew up a wound correctly. He can bandage stuff but even his best bandaging work won’t fix her. He’s so wrapped up in Kate he doesn’t hear the steps next to him, the taller figure from his past making an entrance. 

“You don’t have to make a mess to get my attention.” 

The voice is so familiar and yet it still makes Seth jump. He turns a sharp look over his left shoulder and there’s Richie. He’s standing a little taller, his glasses gone but his brows are folding together all while he’s looking through the window. His eyes are on Kate. Kate in a little white bra and red spattered underwear, stretched out over the mattress. She looks like she’s struggling to breathe. Mimicking a fish out of water, small pink mouth opening and closing as she closes her eyes.

“We had to do something.” Seth reaches for the bottle but stops. He’s elated to see Richie alive and yet, he can’t rejoice while the princess is writhing in agony in the next room. In fact, he can’t even go in the details of how she’s hurt without blaming himself first. It is his fault that she’s bleeding on the bed. It’s all his fault. 

“You’re going to let her die to get my attention?” 

“What! No, no…” Seth feels outrage for a moment. It surges through his core as he grips the tequila bottle so hard he knows it’s going to break if he doesn’t let up. “She’s not going to die. If I got to hold the next doctor I find at gunpoint and make him work, it’s not going to happen!” He’s louder now and he takes a moment to regain the air in his lungs, not wanting to alarm the girl in the room. 

“You think she’s got that much time? Really, brother,” Richie snaps with this voice Seth has only heard on a few occasions. He watches his brother move past him and go for the motel door and Seth jerks an arm out to cover the door, he’s the last line in defense of Kate’s life. Or at least that’s what it feels like in this moment. However, Richie doesn’t even acknowledge him. His attention is on Kate and only Kate as he pulls the door open and strides inside like its his palace. Kate doesn’t even acknowledge him at first. Her eyes are trained on the ceiling and she’s still holding that towel like Seth told her to.

She doesn’t tear her gaze from the ceiling just yet, “Got some thread there, cowboy?” 

It’s meant to be sarcastic but it really just sounds pathetic and when she looks down and sees Richie she tries to move. He doesn’t let her though. His hands move down. One covers her hand and the other one slides out over her hip. His hands are big against her smaller frame and Kate opens her mouth to scream for Seth, but it dies down when he pulls the towel away. It sticks against her flesh again, leaving small white puffs of fabric against the wound. Richie kneels down next to the bed and he’s still tall next to her. His fingers smooth over the edges of the wound and despite the little pulses of pain, Kate doesn’t move. She’s watching him intently. Watching his brows furrow and then his thumb begins sliding along the edge of pink skin, swiping up blood and bringing it to his mouth.

“Stop it!” Seth is first with the outburst and Kate is too entranced to speak but her lips are open and she wants to scream and shout but can’t find the words. Instead she watches Richie slide the pad of his thumb over his bottom lip and close his eyes. Her blood was on that thumb and Kate watches him almost grin as he pulls the digit away from his mouth and close his eyes. It’s like he’s relishing in the triumph of her blood and then as quickly as it started, he opens his eyes once more and turns his head over to his brother. 

“Stop what?” He asks almost innocently. Like he wasn’t tasting her blood, letting it run over the pad of his thumb and across his tastebuds. While the humans only taste the metallic coppery-flavor, he tastes so much more. The culebra in him was alive, dangerous and ready for a second helping but Richie quelles the feeling with a deep inhale as his fingers went back to Kate’s side.

“The blood thing. Stop it. She’s not a meal.” Seth sounds serious and he’s agitated and he’s pacing a bit. Shifting his weight foot to foot looking worried in small glimpses. Richie knows he’s attached to the preacher’s daughter. He can tell the way Seth is staring at Kate like she’s his lifeline. It’s his brother. No one knows him better than he does and so he can’t let Kate bleed out in a filthy mexican motel. She deserves so much more than this. A real grave, with flower and a stone header that has an angel carved in to it. Only for when the time comes and it won’t be coming tonight. At least, not if Richie can stop it. He’s a prodigy after all. He doesn’t need a doctor, he needs thread and more alcohol, clean bandages and a less-irritated Seth leaning over his shoulder. 

“She’d be dessert. Not a meal.” He says it like a predator speaking down to its prey as his eyes slide down to Kate and she doesn’t move much. It hurts too much. Instead her eyes go a little wider and she almost opens her mouth to protest but stops when Richie presses on a piece of flesh above the wound, closer to her rib cage. Instead her mouth clenches and her brows furrow and there’s another round of squelching back screams. Seth is the one who moves to the other side of the bed and crawls on to the mattress. He grabs her forearm and holds it in between his hands, stroking it. His fingers are covering most of her arm as he moves them back and forth in light touches and tries to shake his dark head to her.

“Hey, kiddo.” Seth calms her the best way he can with a smooth silver tongue and she turns and looks up at him with sweat starting to slip from the edge of her hairline. 

“Relax,” Richie starts and he moves his fingers up her stomach making bumps appear over her flesh and she starts breathing a little harder. “She’s not going to bleed out. I need thread and clean needles and lots of bandages. Or I could bite her.”

“Don’t even fucking think about it.” Seth’s hand pulls away from Kate’s and his fingers form a well-practiced fist. He doesn’t move to hit Richie though, but it’s a threat in the room. 

“No, no.” Kate finally speaks up and she’s quieter than both of them but she’s still got that sharp tone edging along her words. “No one is biting me. You’re gonna go get the thread and you’re going to sew me back up. Then we’re all going to have a long discussion on how this is going to work.” 

Despite being so young, she talks like she’s the eldest of the three. She takes control and confidence despite her wounded state. For the most part she seems almost normal despite the lack of color on her face and the shakiness in her elbows as she tries to prop herself up. She’s tired and in pain. It shows with every small movement she makes but Kate doesn’t complain. She never complains because God would never give her more than she could handle. At least, that was what she had been told all her life, all her childhood days spent in Sunday School, echoing around the idea that God would pave a smooth path in front of her as long as she believed it so. 

“This is how it’s going to work.” Seth interrupts and his fingers smooth down to the bend of her elbow and he grips on to her gently. His fingers press over soft skin, threatening to bruise it. “I’m going to be right back okay?” He’s leaning down, forehead daring to touch hers. He wants to move his other hand up and run it over her hair again but refrains himself. “I’m going to get supplies. Anything you need princess, it’s yours.”

“I hate it when you call me that.” She muses and it’s a total lie because never once has she rejected the pet name. Not a single one of the names they called her had ever been rejected. Seth’s names for her were endless and he only called her Kate when things got serious. 

“You know for a con-lady,” he whispers it leaning in and carefully pressing his forehead on hers. Seth inhales sharply, close enough to let his lips ghost hers but refrains himself once more. “You’re a really bad liar.” 

“It’s that light in her,” Richie sighs softly and he’s still holding on to Kate’s side gently, fingers brushing over the skin, causing electricity to race up her side. “It filters out all the filth and shit…”

“Makes her perfect…” Seth finishes but he’s not looking at Kate anymore. He’s looking to his brother who, even without the glasses, looks young and vulnerable. Seth has always taken care of Richie and what was one more to add to that? He could look after both Kate and his brother. It was the older brother genetics in him that fueled the idea of it. 

“I’m not a con-lady.” She whispers it and there’s that twitch of a smile at the corner of her mouth. One that has Richie reaching over and running his fingers along the curve of her jaw. 

“You’ve been around us long enough to catch the title.” Seth mutters. “You’re not as innocent as you think.” 

Kate knows he’s playing with her. Even so, it’s hard to stop the blood rushing to her face. The faint stain of pink on her cheeks as she lets her eyes lock with Richie’s before flicking up to Seth where for a moment she breaks contact to wince. 

The pain in her side is not gone. It is far from gone, just temporarily numbed in the idea of being in love with the Gecko Brothers. Both of them. Not just Seth or Richie, but both of them. Together they were everything and apart they were a broken mess. So with shaky fingers the preacher’s daughter reaches up and gently presses her palm to Richie’s cheek and the other hand moves to Seth’s collar. She pulls gently on the fabric of the suit where it’s been stained in culebra blood and turns her head to Richie. Without his glasses he looks different to her, but still handsome. He’s even pressing his cool cheek further in to her palm to edge her on. Kate takes a shuddering breath and her fingers start to fall from Seth’s shirt but he reaches up and clasps her hand against his chest to hold them there. “I need you two to work together.” 

She’s speaking slow and deliberately to them. Like a Sunday school teacher would. “Because this all hurts.” She doesn’t have to go into details with them. She’s in pain. Excruciating pain and it’s only getting worse. Kate can feel the blood pooling at her side and the faint pulse against the skin as her body tries to catch up to the shock of it all. The fingers on Richie’s cheek slowly fall and she moves her hand over his and covers it. She’s holding it over the wound as her head turns to Seth. “We need supplies. You need to go get a first aid kit and some medicine.” 

“When did you get the medical degree?” Seth is trying to cope, but it’s hard for him to not be in charge for once. He doesn’t take orders well, but with them coming from Kate he could easily manage. So he nods his dark head almost too enthusiastically as his fingers tighten over hers. 

“Since forever, now are you going to help me out or not…?” She’s trailing her words now, her question faltering with the sound of her voice. Her words are no longer strong and pronounced. They are slipping from her and so is the volume in which she speaks. Kate’s bright eyes slowly start to flutter shut and it’s not long before she’s unconscious. It’s almost alarming to both brothers. The eldest grips on to her hand and then realizes she’s still breathing as Richie pulls back and moves to stand. Seth slips off of the bed and reaches up, running the back of his hand over his forehead as he paces. 

“You should go get those supplies. If we can sew her up before she wakes, it will be easier. Quieter,” Richie adds that last word as he looks over to his brother. For a moment, it’s almost like old times. The Gecko Brothers are back together, hiding out in a hotel room. Only this time instead of two is three and they aren’t on top of the world. Seth finds himself nodding though as he runs those fingers through his short hair and then down over his face. 

“Yeah, yeah,” he agrees and takes one last look at Kate as he stands at the foot of the bed. “Look,” Seth starts as he pulls his vision from the angel to the devil across from him. “I’ll go get the supplies. The basics and a first aid kit, but she’s--...” 

Seth stops and looks at his brother for a moment. He takes a few short strides over and clasps a hand over Richie’s taller shoulder. His brother looks at him stunned for a moment but the shock fades away and Richie gives him the same smirk he always has. “That girl is all we have.” Seth is speaking in a low but serious tone even though Kate shows no signs of hearing them. She’s gone from the waking world for now. “She’s no snake, no stripper-goddess, but she is all we have.” His fingers tighten on Richie’s shoulder.

“You don’t think I don’t know that?” Richie sounds a bit hurt for a moment and he looks over at Kate before looking back at Seth. Seth the ever protective older brother, even in love. 

“I know you know that.” Seth is irritated but it’s all out of brotherly affection as he let’s go of Richie’s shoulder and moves away from the bed heading for the door. “I’m just telling you--”

“I know, Kate’s all we have,” Richie finishes for him and his tone is serious and final. Kate and Seth are all that Richie has left in the world of the living. 

“Great.” Seth calls over his shoulder as he is one foot out of the motel door. “So, don’t bite her.”

**Author's Note:**

> Special thank you to Cielo and her amazing editing skills. She also put up with me and my whining this whole time while I typed this up. Literally my cherry flavored lifesaver, grazie to everything you put up with.


End file.
